Teddy Bear
by sheepajamas
Summary: What if Luke and Lorelai met while still in high school?
1. Chapter 1

Luke Danes really did not want to be there. But there he was, standing in Jacob Whitney's trashed living room, a cheap can of beer clutched in his hand, with the majority of teenage Connecticut raging around him.

On any other Saturday night, he wouldn't have been there. Hell, there wouldn't have been a rager this big in Stars Hollow any other Saturday night. But this Saturday wasn't like every other Saturday. Hours earlier, Luke pitched a no-hitter in the state championship against Litchfield High School, earning Stars Hollow its first ever state championship, and sending most of Connecticut into a tizzy about the local who they all hoped would be going pro after he graduated this spring.

"Hey congratulations superstar!"

Luke turned towards the pretty blonde he recognized from his games, although her name had never really stuck. "That was quite a game you played today," she said as she grabbed onto his flannel.

"Thanks. Uh, I'm gonna go get another beer," He grumbled, his eyes searching the room for an escape route as he quickly shook his hand off her shirt. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with her, but after his disastrous breakup with Rachel the year before and his ill-advised hookup with Crazy Carrie under the bleachers a couple weeks later, Luke had stayed away from the girls that had quickly gathered as the baseball season wore on.

Luke quickly found Jacob across the room. "Butch! There you are! I've been looking for you! Hey, do you think you can be my wingman for Danielle? I saw you just shake off Sarah Williams over there so I figured you'd be willing to help a brother out. We can't all be Butch Danes: Superstar you know," Jacob slurred as he raised his hand to give Luke a very manly fist bump.

"Dude, how many beers have you had tonight?," Luke laughed as he held out a hand to steady his best friend.

"Oh, not that many, don't worry about it Dad," Jacob said as he shrugged Luke's hand off his shoulder. "Hey, wait what about that girl over there?," Jacob said as he grabbed onto Luke's sleeve and pointed to a girl standing in the corner. Luke followed his friend's gaze, and his eyes fell upon a girl that he had never seen before. Luke froze, as he felt the world suddenly spinning away from him in a different way than he'd ever known, and the pieces clicking together in a different way than they'd ever been before.

" _Luke, you need to get out of bed," William Danes said as he strode across his son's room and sat down on the bed. "It's going to be fine. Rachel wasn't the girl for you, Luke." Luke flipped onto his side away from his dad and stared vacantly at the ceiling, a heavy silence invading the room. "I thought that maybe she was though Dad," Luke quietly sighed, the words so quiet they were almost unintelligible. The silence stretched out again, which wasn't exactly uncommon when Luke and William were the only ones in the room. William sighed loudly, sounding eerily like his son's sigh earlier. "Look, Luke. I really am not qualified to give you a lot of girl advice. But I can tell you that the second your mom walked into the hardware store for the first time, there was never a maybe."_

William's words rang in Luke's ears as he stared unblinkingly at the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. Honestly, beautiful wasn't strong enough of a word for Luke. He'd never been one for words, but he found himself in that moment cursing himself for not being able to think of the right word to describe the girl Jacob had pointed out. She was facing one of her friends, another pretty girl Luke didn't recognize. She was animatedly telling a story, her arms waving up around her head, sloshing her beer over her cup and onto her black Rolling Stones t-shirt. Luke would've been perfectly happy standing there staring at her for the rest of the night, until he saw Jacob's short head weaving across the room and directly into the path of the beautiful girl.

"Aw, shit," Luke cursed as he watched Jacob tap on her shoulder. "Why do you have to do this to me Jacob?" Luke grumbled under his breath as he quickly pushed his way across the room.

"Hey, I'm Jacob," The girl spun around, her blue eyes flashing up and meeting Luke's for a quick second before she focused on Jacob. Luke stopped his walk across the room, momentarily struck by her eyes looking into his for the first time.

"I'm Lorelai," Luke heard the girl respond to Jacob. Lorelai.

"Hey, have you seen my teddy bear anywhere?," Luke heard Jacob say from across the room. A feeling of panic constricted Luke's chest and he moved faster than he'd moved all day, including those homeruns he'd made earlier. He knew what line Jacob was about to use. Oh, Jacob, you dumb drunk asshole. Luke knew what line he was about to use, and his number one goal in life became to get over there before he could get the words out.

"Your teddy bear?" Lorelai asked. Luke watched as the mask of confusion on her face turned into pain, and then rage as Jacob slurred "I think I lost it. Can I sleep with you instead?"

Luke reached Jacob just in time to see her bright blue eyes cloud over and hear her whisper, "Do you know Christopher?"

"No, not Christopher. Jacob. But you can call me anything you want later tonight." Luke grabbed onto the back of Jacob's shirt and yanked on it, pulling him away from Lorelai and directly stepping in front of him. The gaggle of girls around him started giggling, and Lorelai's eyes got wetter as she looked up at Luke, who was now standing directly in front of her.

"He doesn't know Connor," Luke said, using the low, soft tone he used when Liz came home crying. "I'm so sorry…"- Lorelai turned around, and ran off towards the hallway behind them. As soon as she was gone, her friends interrupted into even louder giggles.

Without a second thought, Luke ran down the dark hallway after her. She turned into the bathroom and grabbed the door, trying to slam it in his face. Again without thinking, Luke stuck his boot in the doorway, blocking her from closing the door. A look of panic quickly crossed her face as she grabbed onto the door handle, trying to force it closed. Great going Danes, he chastised when he realized what she probably thought.

"Oh, no, no, I'm not trying to hurt you!" He held up his hands and moved his foot, panicked about how this looked to her, but also equally panicked that she would slam the door in his face, and he'd never see her again. She took a deep breath, tears shimmering in those blue eyes.

"Who does your friend know from St. Marks?" She asked as she took a deep breath, the words shaky. His heart leapt up into her throat. She hadn't slammed the door in his face. She was actually looking at him again with those beautiful eyes, although he wished they weren't currently brimming with tears, and oh, he really should respond to her question.

"Oh, Jacob?" He managed to stutter out, the question and Jacob's name barely registering in his brain.

"No, our other mutual friend Jimmy Carter. Yes, Jacob, complete stranger."

"He, uh, he doesn't know anyone from St. Mark's. That I know of at least. He's just really, really drunk. And an asshole even when he's not drunk. And he's not my friend. He's the pitcher on my baseball team and I've known him since I was wearing diapers-which means I was a baby because I haven't worn diapers since then, in case you were wondering, but he's not my friend," Stop rambling, his brain told himself as he sputtered out more words than he'd said in the past month combined. "I'm actually thinking of putting a hit on him right now actually." She giggled at that, the tears leaking out of her eyes a tiny bit as she smiled up at him. Oh god, if she ever smiled like that again he was sure that wouldn't be the last of him embarrassing himself.

"And why are you thinking of putting a hit on someone you've known since you were in diapers Complete Stranger?" She asked, her eyes finally lighting up with something that definitely wasn't tears.

"He made the most beautiful woman I've ever seen cry," Luke immediately blurted out, his face turning a bright shade of purple the second he realized what he'd just revealed. She laughed again, a full laugh this time, and not just a giggle like before.

"You don't do this a lot, huh Complete Stranger?" She teased, apparently getting pleasure out of his fifty shades of red face. He shook his head, a tiny smile appearing on his lips. "And why is that?" She asked, not subtly eyeing his muscular arms under his flannel. He shrugged, the very tips of his ears now turning purple.

"Ok, well people normally start by introducing themselves," She instructed, her tone turning bossy.

"Oh, duh. I'm Luke," He shook his head and looked down at the ground, but she could still see the beautiful smile that was the reason she'd noticed him standing by the keg an hour earlier.

"Luke?" She questioned, recognition flooding into her face. "Luke Danes?" He nodded, clearly used to what was coming next. "The Luke Danes who's the reason this party is being held? The sole reason Stars Hollow won a state championship? The Luke Danes who just got drafted by the Red Sox? That Luke Danes?" He nodded, clearly embarrassed.

"I'm not the only reason we won. It takes more than one good player on a team. And it's not like I'll be playing for the Sox next year, I'll be in the minor league." She stayed quiet for a second.

"So you're telling me that Conneticut superstar Luke Danes really has no idea on how to pick up girls? I'm finding that hard to believe." He finally looked up, and forced himself to make eye contact with her again. Yup, it was as good as he remembered.

"Well, I've never really had to before," He admitted. She laughed her real laugh again.

"Honesty. I appreciate that Babe Ruth," she teased.

"Aw geez," he grumbled. "Don't call me Babe Ruth."

"Oh come on. I'm sure the ladies of Stars Hollow would agree with me that you are in fact a babe." He blushed red again, and then fell quiet, suddenly intimidated again by her. She sobered for a second.

"Hey Babe-Can you see the people I was with?" He glanced back at the living room, and saw her friends were all standing in a circle, clearly gossiping.

"Yeah, they're all talking about something," He reported back to her.

"No doubt me," She sighed. She was quiet for a second, clearly weighing her options. "Alright, well it was nice to meet you babe. But if you don't mind moving your foot I'm going to sneak out the bathroom window while they're occupied." He quickly went back into panic mode when he realized she was trying to leave , a thousand questions swirling in his mind, but mostly his dad's voice telling him that there would be no maybe. He couldn't let her leave.

"No. Where'd you park? It's past midnight it's not safe for you to be outside by yourself," he heard himself say.

"Oh, I don't drive yet I just turned 16. But I'll just take the bus, no big deal," she shrugged, clearly unconcerned. Luke's panic quickly went from being directed at her impending departure to the almost instinctual need to keep her safe.

"You can't do that! It's the middle of the night! Let me drive you," He almost pleaded, praying to whoever was up there that he didn't look as frantic as he felt.

"Oh, I live all the way in Hartford. Plus, even if you did drive me all the way there there's no chance of you getting any," she said flippantly, sure that the handsome baseball star would give up when he realized that she wasn't as easy as her supposed friends were currently gossiping she was. His jaw fell open.

"I wasn't planning on getting any!" He protested, holding his hands up. She looked at him warily.

"Lorelai, please let me drive you home. I'd hate myself if anything happened to you on the bus. Look, I'll drive with one hand on the wheel and one tied behind my back if it'll make you feel better," he pleaded. She bit her lip, clearly considering.

"Fine," she decided. "But you better be serious about the hand thing!"


	2. Chapter 2

"Ok, well come on let's go out the window," Lorelai said, gesturing to the open bathroom door behind them. Luke's mouth gaped open at her.

"The window? Why would we go out the window when there's a perfectly good door over there? It has hinges and everything." Lorelai sighed heavily, and glanced quickly at the ground.

"Look, the female majority of St. Mark's is here, to see if they could score with the superstar living in Stars Hollow might I add," Luke's ears turned red at that. "And they are most definitely talking about me right now after that little performance your not-friend put on, and I'd really rather just slip away quietly."

Luke's heart sank when he saw whatever that pain was in her eyes. But Luke Danes was not the type to climb out windows, and especially not when there was a door readily available.

"Hey, well if they came here to meet the superstar of Stars Hollow, what could be better revenge than walking out of the party with him?" He grinned wickedly, and she looked up at him, her grin quickly matching his.

"Lead the way Superstar."

He opened the door of his Dad's old green truck for her, and quickly ran around to get in the drivers seat. He apparently wasn't quick enough, because by the time he got into the truck she had turned to him with a panic stricken look on her face.

"Luke, it's only 10:30. I can't let you leave the party this early, I mean the party is basically for you. Every teenager in the state of Connecticut is going to be talking about it on Monday morning." She started to unbuckle her seatbelt and leaned toward the door, but Luke grabbed her hand before she could get it unbuckled.

"Lorelai, it's really ok." She looked at him reluctantly. "Really. You'd be doing me a favor. This type of thing really isn't my scene." She still looked at him reluctantly.

"Parties with loads of girls falling all over you aren't really your thing?"

"Nope," He answered so quickly she laughed.

"Then what exactly is your thing?"

"Oh, I don't know. Watching the Red Sox with My Dad?" Her smile lit up her face even more than he had realized was possible.

"That is so pathetic I actually believe you." He laughed a real laugh for the first time Lorelai had ever seen. She'd been a little skeptical about him, but with that laugh, she saw why all of her friends had dragged her to this tiny town to meet him.

"Well I don't want to go home to Adolf and Eva yet anyway. What do you townfolk do around here anyway," She asked, realizing that her parents would still be awake if she went home now.

"Uh, not much. I go to school, go to baseball practice, work at my dad's store, cook dinner, and go to sleep," Luke said, realizing that it probably sounded even lamer than it felt coming out.

"Store?" She asked, her eyes locking onto his.

"My dad owns the hardware store in town. I work there almost every afternoon, but ever since he got sick I've been working weekends too," Luke said before he realized that he'd brought up his dad's cancer. He didn't know what it was about this girl that made him spill his guts when he didn't even know her last name. But when he forced himself to look into her eyes, he didn't see the uncomfortableness that was in everyone else's eyes when he mentioned his Dad. He just saw complete understanding.

"So you're really close to your dad then? I mean, I assume you must be if you're ignoring your babe status to watch baseball with him and take over shifts at the hardware store instead." He just nodded.

"Wow. That must be nice," She breathed out, a wistful look crossing onto her face.

"I take it from your polite nickname you're not close to your parents?" She just shook her head, refusing to meet his eyes. He frowned, pissed that he'd somehow gotten her to stop talking already.

"Hey, do you want to go the lake?" He blurted out, desperate to get her to start talking again, and remembering she'd mentioned not wanting to go home. "I've got some beers in the back. There's not much else to do here."

Two hours later, Luke realized he'd probably never need to worry about her not talking ever again. He'd driven them to the lake, and they sat in the back of his truck, a beer dangling from each of their hands. Once she'd had half of the beer Luke had stolen from his Dad, she started talking about god knows what and she hadn't stopped since. She weaved form topic to topic, going from the history test she'd had yesterday to how much she hated President Reagan, briefly mentioning her ex Christopher (Luke's ears had perked up on that on. From what he quickly gathered, he was an ass, and Lorelai was well aware), to quizzing Luke about his love life. He'd reluctantly mentioned Rachel, or at least the genuine concept of Rachel. He saw no reason to go into detail with Lorelai looking at him like she currently was. Lorelai quickly took it in stride, jumping to the Star Wars movie she'd just seen in theaters, and then bombarding Luke with questions about his Dad, and Liz, and baseball. Normally Luke would get far, far away from anyone who had spoken this many words without taking a breath in between, and would definitely run away from anyone who made him talk about himself this much. But, he found he didn't mind watching the way the moonlight reflected off her eyes as she was comparing him to her "favorite Luke, Luke Skywalker", and he definitely didn't mind the jealous spark he saw when he said Rachel's name. He liked it when she stopped in the middle of one of her stories for a brief second to brush a piece of her dark hair behind her ear, and he definitely liked it when she shivered in the middle of a sentence and scooted closer to him, grabbing his arm and wrapping it around her shoulders while never stopping the constant stream of words coming from her mouth.

"Hey Luke?" She asked, turning her head up towards his face, his arm still wrapped around her shoulder. She'd fallen silent a couple of minutes ago, and it had been silent as Luke tried to will up the courage to scoot a little closer and kiss her.

"Are you ever going to kiss me?" She asked, her face lighting up into that smile that caused Luke's stomach to turn itself into knots. He froze. He suddenly couldn't force his body to move the couple of inches forward, to kiss her like he'd kissed a fair amount of girls at Stars Hollow High. Her face suddenly went ashen, and she scooted away from him quickly.

"Oh, I uh, I'm sorry it's just with that most beautiful girl I'd ever seen comment and the we've been sitting here for the past couple of hours alone and you shared the beer you obviously took some trouble to get but I should've known you've been pretty quiet and you probably just couldn't get me to shut up long enough to take me home and once you realized you weren't going to score easy with me just because I'm a sophomore-" She was cut off as Luke gently cupped his hands to her face and pulled her face up towards his, brushing her lips for a gentle soft brush of the lips.

He drew back and looked at her nervously. She stared at him, shocked, and then quickly recovered. She grabbed his hand and pulled him back towards her.

"Why'd you stop?" She giggled as she crashed her lips back onto his. The kiss was more aggressive this time, as she passionately melded his lips with hers.

The kiss was more passionate this time, and she quickly deepened it, dragging his body closer to hers. Their tongues battled for what could have been seconds but really felt like blissful eternity. She pushed him onto his back, and he fell onto the back of the truck, her lips attaching itself to her ear. Luke had to stop the groan from escaping his lips as she worked his way down to his neck, and her hands slipped up the bottom of his flannel. Ignoring every nerve in his body that hadn't been ignited like this in months, he tried to focus on the fact that she was only a sophomore and that he'd only met her a matter of hours ago as he grabbed her hands and pulled them away. He pressed a quick kiss back onto her lips and pulled her onto his chest. She snuggled up onto his chest, the silence and beer and body heat lulling them into a sleepiness.

"Hey Luke?"

"Hmm?" He asked as he pressed a light kiss to the top of her head.

"I'm glad you followed me into the bathroom like a serial killer," She whispered as she closed her eyes and drifted off into a sleep.

An hour later, as the sun started to rise, Luke reluctantly shook Lorelai awake and they wordlessly got back into the truck. Luke drove with one hand, the other hand resting firmly on her thigh, as she half drifted off with her forehead resting on the window pane. He was afraid that if he let go, he'd never get the courage to touch her again.

"Are you sure your parents aren't going to be mad?" Luke looked over at her skeptically, as he pulled up in front of a massive house. He worried that he'd already ruined it by keeping her out until the sunrise. "I could come in and apologize if that'll make it easier for you."

Lorelai smiled at his thoughtfulness through her cloud of half sleep. He hadn't talked much during the night, but she'd already gotten the general idea of who he was in the short snippets of when he started talking about Liz and his Dad, and of how he'd stroked her hand as she dozed off on his chest. Confident, warm behind his grumpy, quiet exterior, always more concerned with the people he loved than himself. She hoped this wasn't a crazy thought, but she was hoping that maybe someday she would be added to that list.

"No. They thought that I was spending the night at Allison's tonight. Anyway, as long as I show up to the parties I'm supposed to in the dresses I'm supposed to, they don't normally care that much." His heart panged when he saw the soft, sad smile she gave at that.

"Ok. Well.." He trailed off, not wanting her to get out of the car, and trying to think of what to say to express what he was feeling, to make sure he'd get to see her again. She looked at him patiently, hoping he would ask to see her again. When he didn't, she sighed and plastered a fake smile on her face.

"Ok, Luke, well I had a really nice-"

"Wait Lorelai, I don't know if I made it clear enough, but I really want to see you again. I kind of want to see you a lot of agains. I mean, I don't really think I've ever felt this way about anyone before after such a short time, not even Rachel and she was my first and.." He started to ramble again. He'd never rambled once in his life, and here he was reduced to a blubbering idiot twice in front of her.

"Luke." She cut him off, her eyes lighting up with a real smile again. "I'd love to see you again."

He breathed a sigh of relief. She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. She opened up the truck door and disappeared into the early morning sunshine as Luke sat staring at her, wanting to cement every detail of this night in his mind before he drove back to Stars Hollow and woke up his Dad to recount every detail.


End file.
